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MEMOIR. 



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A MEMOIR. 



By Rev. HOWARD CROSBY. D. D. 



HOBHI8ANIA, N. Y. 



1870. 



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The following Memoir, prepared for Tira Bistobiou. 
Maoazine and originally published in that work, has been 
re-prodnced in this form, in an edition of thirty copies, ex- 
closlTely for private circulation among the personal friends 
of Mr. Moore. 

MoBBiSAMiA,N Y.,18T0. H. B. D. ■ 



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MEMORIAL. 



Men of worth shrink from notoriety. They 
live for their work ; not for themselves. Their 
ambition is to do; not to appear. Idlers and 
adventurers will clinih up dizzy hein;hts, to 
carve (heir names in the rock; but the true 
man cuts down the forest, builds the house, 
and tills the soil, leaving something better 
than an empty name for the generations to 
come. The heroes of the world have never 
been mustered by History; it is only the Di- 
vine roll-call, at the great consummation, that 
can select those modest souls. Where one 
great man escapes into fame, a liundred enclose 
themselves in their cocoons of industry, fond of 
concealment and all unconscious of their com- 
ing colors. If one wishes to sec the good, the 
useful, and the true, amon r m-n, he must look 
beneath the surface, or he will make a defective 
estimate. Some good grows up into visibility ; 
but a vast amount lies as gold in the mine ; 
and when the wealth of virtue that the world 
possesses, is to be reckoned, the jewels that 
hide from the public gaze are to be remember- 
ed as forming the largest portion of the whole 
amount. 

It is a very refreshing ezporienco to the 
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healthy mind to turn from the crowded high- 
way, -n-herc merit is disfigured wi'h dust and 
tinsel, and clamorous applause marks alike the 
good and evil, and find, in calmer scenes, the 
contented spirit, a reward to itself, achieving 
its progress, not by the gui^lance of popular 
impulse, but by the inward promptings of 
the truth. It is principally through such la- 
borers that tlie world moves; and it is around 
Buch that true happiness gathers. 

For many years, it has been our good for- 
tune to watch the busy life of a toiler of 
this sort; and, if we regarded only his per- 
sonal peace, we should not now mention his 
name; but, for the encouragement of others 
and a protest against the noise, and bluster, 
and sensation of the day, we must wound his 
feelings for this once. 

GEonoE Henry Mooue was born in Con- 
cord, New riampsbire, on the twentieth of 
April, 1833. 

His father was well known in his native 
State, for his high political and literary abili- 
ties; and, toward the close of his life, filled 
the onerous and responsible position of Post- 
master at San Francisco, where he lent his 
energies to the growth of that Pacific metrop- 
olis. Mr. Moore's uncle, Governor Isaac Hill, 
had a national fame. 

George, the oldest of four sons, came to 
New York, iu 1839, at the ago of sixteeD ; 



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and, by a course of resolute self-denial, made 
an honorable way for himself and his three 
brothers, through a collegiate education, at 
tho New York University, his youngest bro- 
ther being graduated Iroiu that institution in 
1851. George himself was graduated in 1843. 
His fellow-students of that day love to testi- 
fy to his untiring perseverance and i^enial 
disposition, throughout his college course, in 
which he mingled the devotion of the scholar 
with the instincts of generous friendship. 

In 1841, while a Sophomore in College, he 
entered the service of the New York Histori- 
cal Society, as Assistant Librarian, George 
Folsom being the Librarian. 

The Historical Society, at that time, was a 
quiet potentialitj', a respectable egg, over 
which the influences of Wasliington Irving, 
George Bancroft, and other such were brood- 
ing with faint hopes of a hatch. It was 
stowed away in a corner of tiie University 
Building; and led a very dingy life. From 
the start, Mr. Jloore, as Assistant Librarian, 
became the chief workman in the concern, — 
George Folsom, and afterwards, George Gibbs, 
and then Mr. Moore's venerable father, who 
were Librarians, wisely acting as figuie-heads 
to the office; and allowing tlie genius and 
industry of the Assistant to be unliummelled. 
A new life entered the old bones. Growth, 
order, thrift, were the magical results of 



young Moore's energy. In 1849, the Historical 
Society did not l^now itself. It had become a 
power in the community. The best men of the 
City thronged its seancea, (wlierc portly Janitor 
Smith dealt out the chocolate) ; pajjers of 
highest interest were read in its rooms ; its pa- 
tronage was sought by the historical explorers 
of the land ; and rich men were honored by 
contributing to its resources. Wliile all this 
was I one, the cunning workman who had 
wrought the change remained in obscurity as 
the Assistant Librarian. 

When Mr. Moore's father resigned his post 
as Librarian, Doctor Edward Robinson, who 
always had an eye to the titness of things, pro- 
posed the son as the rightful successor. 

From that day to this, a period of twenty 
years, Mr. Moore, if we may be classical and 
not jocose, has been the Atlas of the Historical 
Society. To change the figure and conform 
the Ijetter to modern scii-nce, Mr. INIoore has 
been the central Sun of the Historical Society's 
system, around which President, Vice-president, 
and all the other officers and members, have 
most becomingly pursued their orbits. When- 
ever any one thinks of the Historical Society, 
George H. Moore appears at once to his im- 
agination. He is the Historical Society, in its 
walking, talking avatar. While the Society 
has taken the first rank among kindred institu- 
tions in this country, and appropriately moved 



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HISTOniCAI. SOCIKTY BUILDIPTG ' 

(.■r-i""^^lvena£Sn'^' Street, N Y. _ 



itself out of the University garret into a neat 
and iKMUtiful liouse of its own, it would foil a 
cynic to seek the first error of management in 
design or execution on the part of the ruling 
spirit of the noble enterprise. 

In that tine cdifiie, on Second Avenue, with- 
in tlu- classic purlieu of St. Slark's, is gathered 
the richest material for our country's history ; 
while Nineveh aud Egypt are represented to 
the undoubted satisfaction of the bust of 
Herodotus, over the main door. No visitor in 
New York is guiltless who has failed to enter 
this shrine of Clio and lulled his spirit in its 
quiet, historic atmosphere. No man can say 
that he knows the institutions of New York, if 
he does not know Geouqb H. Moore. The 
hearty welcome, the kindliucssof soul, ovei-flow- 
ing in voice and manner, the genial greeting of 
eye and hand, whicli Clio's high-priest accords 
to devout worshippers, are worth a long journey 
of themselves. 

Otr the main Library hall is Mr. Moore's la- 
boratory. Here, his untiring industry has ac- 
c<)in|)Ushed its successes. When lie had com- 
pleted tlie years of detail tha' w. re necessary 
to syst niatize the literary property of the 
Society and had reduced a very dismal chaos 
to cosmical order, he turned his attention to 
utilizing liis large information and mature 
judgment, for the benefit of the liistoric world. 
In 1860, Mr. Moore published an octavo of 



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one luindred and fifteen pnges, on the Jreason 
of Charles Lee* a work which excited deserved 
interest and showed the accurate analysis and 
scholarly abilities of its author. In 1803, he 
published his Historical Notes on the employ- 
ment of Negroes in the American Army of the 
Revolution,^ a most opportune and influential 
publication, when the negro-soldier-question 
was pressing itself on the Nation, in the fear- 
ful scenes of civil strife ; and, iu 1806, he 
aroused (rather than excited) public attention 
by his Notes on the History of Slavery in Mas- 
sachusetts,l an octavo of two hundred and fif- 
ty-six pages. Tiiis work fairly startled the 
Pharisees, who had smoothed their paunches 
with a comfortable feeling of their own im- 
maculateness, and put a valuable foot-note to 
some loose pages of history. 

"• Mr. Lee's Pla7i—Marcfii9,mi." \ The \ Treason of 
Charles Lee | Major General | second in command in the 
American Arviy \ of ihe lievoliition. \ By George H. Moore, 
1 Librarian of the New York Historiciil Society. | [Head 
before the Society, ou Tuesday eveuiug, June 2?, ib58.]l 
** The evil that m^n do licts after //ii m. " | New Xork : 1 
Charles Scribuer, U4 Qraml SUeet. | M.DCCC.LX | 

Octavo pp. xii, 115. Portraits and fac-similes. 

t Histoncal ^otes | on the i Kjnpluiimentof Negroes 1 in 
the I Ainaican Arrni/ of ttie Reiuiliilion. | By | George H. 
Moore, | Librarian of the New York Historical Society. 1 
New York ; | Charles T. Evans, 532 Broadway. | 18G2. 

Octavo, pp. 24. 

t Notes I on the \ History of Slavery | in \ Massachusetts 
I By George II. Moore | Librarian of tbe New York His- 
torical Society and Corresponding | Member of the Massa- 
chasetts Historical Society. | Quis neecit, primam esse hia- 
torire lei^em, ne qnid falsi | dicere audeat V delude ne quid 
falsi I dicere audeat ? deinde ne quid veri uon audeat 7 | — 
Cic. de Ural.. IL, 15. 1 New Y'ork: | D. Appleton & Co. 443 
& 445 Broadway | M.UCCC.LXVL | 

Octavo, pp. iv, 266. 



This was followed by a tract, entitled Addi- 
tional Notes on Slaver;/ in Massachusetts* a 
clincher to the former. Mr. Moore has also been a 
frequent contributor to The Evening Post, Com- 
mercial Advertiser, Journal of Commerce, and 
the IIiSToniCAL jrAOAZixn, where his signature 
of E. Y. E. is widely-known throughout the 
historical world. 

A more valu!il)Ie work than these, and one on 
which Mr. Moore's fame will cliiefly rest, as an 
accurate, laborious, and scholarly writer and 
historian, is tlie History of the Jurisprudence of 
New rurlc, still incomplete and unpublished; 
but which is, and has lieen, for a long time, en- 
gaging his fiitl.ful energies. 

In 18G0, Mr. Moore wa-; called to theCIiair<if 
Legal History, in the New York Univeisity ; but 
he declined this fitting tribute to his worth. From 
the same institution, he subsequently received 
the degree of LL.D. 

We wish that we felt at liberty to introduce 
our readers within the sacred circle of Mr. 
Moore's home. Of course we cannot. We can 
only say that the home is all that could be ex- 
pected from such a man. Mr. Moore was married, 
on the twenty-first of October, 1850; and with a 
wife who appreciates liim and children of pe- 
culiar promise, his lot is to be envied, furnish- 

• Ad'Jitional Notf» I on W<j | HUlorv Of Slavery in 
UrutachuaeUf, | O. II. M. \ 
SmuU quarto, pp. IS. 



ing a fair model of the unostentatious, literary, 
useful, upright, and contented life — the life to 
which "fides et ingeni henigna vena'''' aie of 
higher value than the "eJ«r"and "aureum''^ 
and " trnbes Hymetliae." 

New Yokk City. H. C. 



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